The Emancipation of South America/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
SAN MARTIN IN EUROPE AND IN AMERICA.
1778—1812.
Jose de San Martin was born on the 25th February, 1778, at the town of Yapeyu in Misiones, and was the fourth son of Captain Don Juan de San Martin who was at that time Lieutenant-Governor of the Department of Yapeyu. When he was eight years old the family went to Spain, and he became a pupil in the Seminary of Nobles at Madrid, where he remained only two years, and learned little beyond the rudiments of mathematics and something of drawing. Before he was twelve years old, he joined the "Murcia" regiment as a cadet. The uniform of this regiment was white and blue, the same colours the mature soldier afterwards carried in triumph over half a continent.
His first campaign was in Africa, where he received his baptism of fire in battle against the Moors. When in garrison at Oran in 1791, the city, at that time besieged by the Moors, was destroyed by an earthquake. In 1793 he joined the army of Aragon, and served under Ricardos against the republicans of France on their own territory. This experience was of great value to him, as Ricardos was the best tactician among the Spanish generals of that day. After two successful actions at Masden and Truilles, Ricardos was forced to retire to the foot of the mountains, where he maintained his position for twenty days against the constant attacks of the enemy, and San Martin so distinguished himself that he was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant.
In the following May, after the death of Ricardos, the "Murcia" formed part of the garrison of Port Vendres, which, after beating off two attacks of the French, was forced to retreat to Collioure and there surrendered. San Martin gained another step by his conduct in these affairs.
In 1795 the peace of Basilea freed the young lieutenant from his parole. In the following year his father died, and the treaty of San Ildefonso brought Spain as an ally of the French republic into collision with Great Britain. On the 14th February, 1797, the "Murcia," on board the Spanish Mediterranean squadron, took part in the disastrous affair off Cape Saint Vincent. On the 15th August, 1798, San Martin was marine officer on the Santa Dorotea, when that ship was captured after a desperate defence, by the English 64-gun ship Lion, and being thus for the second time debarred from active service, he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics and drawing.
In the year 1800 at the head of a company of his old regiment, he took part in the serio-comic war with Portugal known as the "War of the Oranges," and was present at the siege of Olivenza. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, his regiment was employed in the blockade of Gibraltar and Ceuta, and in 1804 we find him in garrison at Cadiz, as second captain of a light infantry regiment, where his conduct during a pestilence was as honourable to him as had been his conduct in the field.
By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in 1807, France and Spain divided Portugal and her colonies between them, and a column of 6,000 Spanish troops under Solano invaded Portugal. The regiment to which San Martin was attached, captured the town of Yelves, but took no further part in the campaign.
The émeute of the 2nd May at Madrid, gave the signal for an outbreak of popular indignation, against the usurpations of Napoleon. The news reached the army of Solano when on the march for Cadiz. Solano was at first undecided what course to adopt, but his appointment as Captain-General of Andalucia and Governor of Cadiz being confirmed by the French, he on the 28th May issued a proclamation condemning the insurrection. The people flocked in crowds to the palace, shouting for an immediate attack upon the French squadron lying in the harbour; in the confusion some shots were fired. San Martin, who was officer of the guard, withdrew his troops into the house and closed the door. It was blown in by a cannon-shot, but time had been gained for the escape of Solano across the roof to a neighbouring house, where, however, he was soon afterwards found and cruelly butchered.
This tragedy was never effaced from the memory of San Martin, and without doubt greatly affected his policy on many subsequent occasions. In spite of his love of liberty he ever after looked with horror upon mobs, and upon governments who relied upon them. He considered that intelligence supported by orderly strength should hold the government of the world. Nevertheless his reason and his heart must have told him that the cause of Spain was just, and that the executions on the Prado of Madrid on the 2nd May were more barbarous and less justifiable than was the murder of Solano.
About this time it is said that Miranda visited Cadiz in disguise, but for this report we can find no foundation. He was the founder and organiser of the secret societies to which South Americans throughout Europe were already affiliated, but Spain was the last country in Europe in which such societies were established. Cadiz being the one port open to American trade, became naturally at this time the centre of the revolutionary propaganda.
In the early years of the nineteenth century an association styled "Sociedad de Lautaro," or "Caballeros Racionales," had ramifications all over Spain, and was affiliated with the "Gran Reunion Americana" established in London by Miranda. This society had in Cadiz alone in the year 1808 more than forty members, some of them grandees of Spain. Those of the first grade were pledged to work for the independence of America; those of the second swore "to recognise no government in America as legitimate unless it was elected by the free and spontaneous will of the people, and to work for the foundation of the republican system." Of this society San Martin became a member. An American by birth, a revolutionist by instinct, and a republican by conviction, he was, perchance, without knowing it, an adept of Miranda, and was destined to make the dream of the master a reality, when the bones of that master lay rotting on the mud banks upon which his eye might at this time often rest.
At the same time with San Martin three other members joined the lodge; Alvear, who was his confidant till he became jealous of his fame; José Miguel Carrera, who was to die cursing him; and, most modest of all, the naval lieutenant Matias Zapiola, who was afterwards his right arm on many a hard-fought field. San Martin was the least brilliant and the poorest of them all; his comrades recognised the superiority of his talents as a soldier, and said that he did the thinking for them all, but in the great revolutionary drama that all foresaw they assigned to him only the place of a stern warrior; Alvear and Carrera, the most arrogant and the most ambitious, were to be the heroes.
The general rising in Spain found San Martin in his place as an officer of light infantry under the command of Colonel Menacho. He was soon promoted, and his regiment joined the second division of the army of Andalucia, commanded by the Marquis of Coupigni. When the French under Dupont crossed the Sierra Morena, he was placed in charge of the line of the Guadalquivir. On the 28th June, 1808, he led a mixed column against the advanced guard of the enemy, and charged a detachment of cavalry with such impetuosity at the head of twenty-one hussars, that he killed seventeen of the enemy, took four prisoners and all their horses, and retired in triumph, in the face of very superior numbers. This action was greatly applauded by the whole army, a badge of honour was given to all who charged with him, and he was appointed captain in the Bourbon regiment "on account of distinguished conduct in the action at Argonilla."
This small triumph was the precursor of one of the greatest victories of the epoch. Before one month had elapsed, the imperial eagles of Napoleon were beaten by an army of recruits inspired by patriotism, and Captain San Martin was mentioned with distinction in the order of the day of the battle of Baylen.
The road to Madrid being opened by this victory the army of Andalucia entered the capital in triumph, and San Martin received, with his commission as lieutenant-colonel, a gold medal for his conduct in the battle. He was afterwards present at the disaster of Tudela, and in the retreat to Cadiz, and in 1810 was appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Coupigni. In 1811 he took part in the bloody battle of Albuera, where the French were defeated by an allied army under General Beresford, the same who five years previously had capitulated to Liniers at Buenos Ayres. The same year he joined the Sagunto regiment, the escutcheon of which was a sun with this motto "Hœ nubila tolunt obstantia solvens"—dissipates clouds and removes obstacles. This was the last Spanish standard under which San Martin fought, and its symbol was identical with that of the flag of the as yet unthought of army of the Andes.
The prophecy of the dying Pitt was realised. Napoleon had stirred up against himself a national war and was irremediably lost. Spain allied with Great Britain, in saving herself, saved Europe from his brutal domination, and the American Creole having paid with usury his debt to the mother country could now honourably leave her. San Martin had fought under her flag for twenty years, he had seen the strategy of great generals, had learned the tactics of every arm in the service; the pupil was now a master able to give lessons. He turned his eyes to his own country, and seeing her in difficulty resolved to return and consecrate his life to her service.
The confidant of his projects and sentiments on this occasion was a singular personage. Lord Macduff, afterwards Earl of Fife, was a Scotch noble descended from that Shakespearean hero who slew Macbeth. He was in Vienna when the Spanish insurrection broke out in 1808, he came over at once and enlisted as a simple volunteer. As such he took part in most of the great battles of the time, in one of which he was seriously wounded, and was given the rank of a General of Spain for his services. Then it was that San Martin and Macduff became acquainted; their generous natures had a profound sympathy each for the other, their friendship was enhanced by the dangers they shared, and continued so long as both lived. By his help and by the interposition of Sir Charles Stuart, a diplomatic agent in Spain, San Martin obtained a passport for London, and received from his friend letters of introduction, and letters of credit of which he made no use.
In London he met his comrades Alvear and Zapiola, and other South Americans who were there at the time. All belonged to the secret society founded in London by Miranda, in which Bolivar had just taken the oath, before leaving for Venezuela in company with the illustrious master. San Martin and his two comrades were initiated in the fifth and last grade, and in January, 1812, embarked on the George Canning for the River Plate. On the 9th March they reached Buenos Ayres, accompanied by various officers who came to offer their swords in the cause of independence.
The moment was a critical one in the history of the American revolution; the serious work was just commencing; the real struggle between Patriots and Royalists was yet to come, and the discordance of the various elements of society only now became apparent.
The Argentine revolution had provoked insurrection in Chile, both by diplomacy and by example. Her first army of volunteers had marched to Upper Peru with the object of striking the enemy in the centre of his power; and in November, 1810, had won the first victory of the war at Suipacha, but was eight months later defeated at Huaqui, and compelled to retreat to Tucuman. Buenos Ayres had attempted to gain command of the rivers by arming a small squadron, which was destroyed by the enemy in the Paraná. A Portuguese army of four thousand men held the line of the Uruguay. Paraguay had commenced a system of isolation, almost of hostility.
The movement in Chile, at first successful, was in 1812 threatened by an expedition from Peru, and the young Republic unfortunately put her trust in José Miguel Carrera, who, with some attractive qualities, possessed no solid talents, either military or political.
In this same month of March an earthquake destroyed the city of Caracas. Reaction triumphed over Miranda in Venezuela; only in New Granada did the revolutionary cause maintain a footing for some time longer. In 1815 all the insurrections in South America had been suppressed, save only the Argentine revolution, which was never overpowered.
Meantime the viceroyalty of Peru, holding a central position, with a strong army and the command of the sea, was the centre of reaction; and the masses of the people not yet implicated in the revolution, began to look unfavourably upon it, as their eyes were opened to the perils it invoked and to the sacrifices it involved.
The Argentine revolution had as yet no fixed plan. In so rudimentary a state of society the actual leaders had but little power to direct the latent strength of the people, and even among themselves opinions were divided, some believing that the centralisation of power in the city of Buenos Ayres was the only means of ensuring the success of the revolutionary movement, while to others decentralization seemed the one necessary condition of national life. The revolution arose in the cities; its legality was based upon municipal rights, and could not long maintain its original form. It could only live by a wider popularity based upon the sovereignty of the people at large. Fortunately the men at this time at the helm were the most intelligent, energetic, and foreseeing who ever acted together on this stage.
The first Executive Government, installed on the 25th May, 1810, was a Junta, in imitation of those established in Spain to resist the domination of the French. Modified a year later by the admission of deputies from the provinces, it became a many-headed monster, useless alike for debate and for administration. It was succeeded by a Triumvirate under the name of "The Executive Government," which, by the aid of those men, saved the State from shipwreck.
Such was the situation of The United Provinces of the River Plate when San Martin landed on Argentine soil.
Twenty-six years before, while yet a child, he had left his native land; now he returned in the ripeness of manhood, tempered in the struggles of life, tutored in the art of war, initiated in the mysteries of secret societies formed for the propagation of the new ideas of liberty. The new champion brought to the American cause tactics and discipline applied both to politics and to war; and, in embryo, a vast plan for a continental campaign which should embrace half a world and should result in its independence.
It has been said that San Martin was not a man but a mission, and, in truth, seldom has the influence of one man upon the destinies of humanity been greater than 
I.— Map of the Viceroyalty of La Plata and of the Kingdom of Chile, excluding Upper Peru and Southern Patagonia.